Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

It’s not just the fact that Grand Theft Auto 6 – which is expected to be one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time – is still on track to launch in the fall of next year. If we look at the more immediate situation of Take-Two, the publisher’s most recent financial statements showed that revenue and bookings were up for the three months ending September 30, losses were declining, NBA 2K, an annual must-have, recovered from its disappointing 2023 sales, and GTA 5, aged of 11 years, continues to exceed expectations.

But it hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows. In April, Take-Two announced that it was lay off 5% of its workforce as the company fell prey to the same economic pressures that have affected almost every company in the video game industry.

Ahead of Take-Two’s second-quarter financial results announcement, we spoke with Zelnick about the the long-rumored sale of Private Division is now confirmed to an undisclosed buyer, and also discussed some of the broader challenges and opportunities facing the Greater Toronto Area company.

The conversation can be found below and encompasses the CEO’s thoughts on the benefits and dangers of cramming four blockbuster releases into the next calendar year, the impact of the disappointing Borderlands film, and the pressures facing publishers are facing given the slow transition between console generations and consumers’ ever-increasing quality demands for AAA games.

The interview has been edited for clarity.

“I believe that PC will become an increasingly important platform for AAA titles”

Take-Two has a big line-up for 2025, with Borderlands 4, Mafia: The Old Country, Civilization 7 and GTA 6 all arriving in the same year – as well as annual releases like NBA 2K. What was the idea behind releasing so many big brands in the same window?

First of all, we market titles when they are ready and not before, so we cannot manage the timing perfectly. Second, we have been building our pipeline for years in order to have an annual release schedule that is strong year after year.

We stated and confirmed in this release that we expect to set new net lending records in fiscal 2026. And fiscal year (fiscal year) 2027, so we think the music is going to continue, it’s not going to stop.

How will this lineup affect you in the years to come? We imagine it’s unlikely you’ll have four titles of this magnitude every year, or even every two years.

We are certainly growing our pipeline and have been serving this goal for some time. But you are right, there will be bigger years and lesser years.

On the other hand, we are developing our live service activities. Mobile represents about 50% of our net bookings here, but we also offer live services in NBA 2K, Red Dead Redemption and GTA 5. As we develop them, they are indeed an important title in their own right every year. year.

Our goal is to consistently have a really great release schedule, as we plan to have in the next fiscal year, as well as an incredibly robust catalog, a huge ongoing lifetime services business for mobile and consoles – all at the same time. It’s good if we can achieve that – that’s our challenge.

The Borderlands 4 announcement follows the film’s disappointing performance at the box office. What impact did the film’s difficulties have on the brand and Take-Two?

With the launch of the film, we actually sold more (back) catalogs than expected, which therefore provided us with a marketing framework. You’re right, the movie was disappointing.

The Borderlands movie follows a series of hugely successful and critically acclaimed video game adaptations – the Mario movie, Fallout, The Last of Us, Sonic. The quality of movies and TV shows based on games is increasing, so does that make it even harder to get it right?

This is one of many reasons why we are very, very selective about releasing our intellectual properties in other media.

NBA 2K is a Take-Two staple, but last year’s edition didn’t sell as well as expected. How did NBA 2K25 fare in comparison?

It’s going very well. We have sold nearly 4.5 million units and recurring consumer spending is above our expectations, up year over year. The trajectory is great. We feel really good.

To what do you attribute this type of recovery?

It’s a better game. I mean, last year’s game was great too, but this is a better game. The fact that we’ve been focused on delivering a great PC SKU has helped a lot and, of course, (PS5 and Xbox Series) are growing rapidly and we’re doing very well with those. (PS4 and Xbox One) were more of a challenge last year.

The transition to the current generation of consoles has been much slower than before – four years later, and 50% of active PlayStation players are still on PS4, for example. How does this impact you as an editor? Is there pressure to continue supporting both generations, despite the cost?

Yes, it’s a different generation. There was the pandemic, there were chip shortages, so for a while – really too long – supply was limited. Supply constraints (are typical) at the start of a new generation, but they usually disappear after about six to nine months. But these supply constraints lasted almost two years.

“The quality threshold demanded by the consumer is always increasing”

And then the pandemic ended and we saw for the first time in forever for mobile – and for the first time in a long time for console – a real decline of the entire market. It is therefore a combination of events which has put a certain pressure on this new generation.

PC continues to grow in importance for AAA – that’s a good thing for us. We see the benefits of this in NBA 2K25. I believe that PC will become an increasingly important platform for AAA titles.

Nintendo confirmed this week that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible, so that’s another new platform you’re competing on with a huge catalog of titles.

You are always competing with everything and you are competing with yourself. Additionally, backwards compatibility is good for our catalog, and we believe we have the best-selling catalog by SKU in the industry.

What are your hopes or expectations for the Switch’s successor?

I never count out Nintendo.

Finally, we’ve seen a number of AAA titles struggle over the past couple of years – most recently Star Wars Outlaws, which on paper seemed like a surefire success. What do you think of the current challenges in the AAA field?

I think it’s difficult and it’s getting more and more difficult. And this is true for all entertainment businesses as they begin to mature.

The quality threshold demanded by the consumer is always rising, and it works for us because we have a three-pronged strategy to be the most creative, most innovative and most effective company in the entertainment industry. If we are about to achieve these goals, we meet the consumer where they are and where they want to be. But there is no doubt that quality requirements always increase over time.